Jan 26, 2015

This morning I continued the gradual move towards speed. I ran a short session of 3 x 200 metres with a 100 metre jog in between each. I averaged 42 seconds per 200 metres, which is 3:30 per km pace – not too slouchy. Of course, I was breathing more heavily than usual, but found it very comfortable all the same. I could have gone further and faster, but that would have been foolish – there’s no rush. More importantly, there was no objection from the Achilles at all.

Kevin Carr is back on the road, albeit doing shorter days until he recovers fully from the flu he had. Unfortunately, the time off has increased the daily average he requires, which now sits at over 58 km per day. I still reckon he can do it, though. Remember, you can follow his progress on www.hardwayround.com.

For anyone interested in the ride I did last week, you can see the data and stats by clicking on the link below, including the super steep Jamberoo Pass.

I had my hilliest day yet, with almost one kilometre of vertical ascent. One climb was 6 km long. Thankfully it was a mostly overcast and relatively cool day.

Annoyingly, I made a mistake by passing up the first cafe in the town of Mangaweka. I explored further into town before realising I was going to have to go back. So I turned off my GPS and backtracked to get something to eat and drink.

The lady in the cafe was very interested in my endeavour, and filled my water bottles from the tap out the back. And I’m doubly glad I went back, as I bought a smoked fish pie, which was delicious. For some reason it tasted very similar to the scallop pies in Tasmania.

The town of Mangaweka is very historic, and reminded me of the town of Carcoar in NSW (not exactly sure why, because they don’t look that much alike). There was a grand old Bank of New Zealand building on one corner, but it has clearly not been used for banking for some time.

Much of the day was spent paralleling the Rangitikei River. This river has huge scarred cliffs of dried mud. All the road cuttings display the same strata. I’m no geologist, but I can imagine that the top hundred metres or so of this region was deposited in ancient times in a huge mud slide when a volcano melted a glacier or caused a large lake to burst its sill. Maybe a real geologist can correct me or elaborate?

I made it to the town of Taihape today. This town, quite high in elevation with snow capped mountains in the distance, is what I imagine some of the towns will be like when I run through Colorado and other US states in the Rockies. By the way, the town is pronounced ‘Ty Happy’, so it’s a big hello to all the happy Ty men out there, especially those born on May 2.

Tomorrow I will finish in the shadow of Mount Ruahepu, the 2,800 metre high snow capped volcano. The views should be memorable (from below, of course).

There was barely a peep out of my left heel today, although my quads were very sore. That’s to be expected. Perversely, my right heel actually ached a bit, but it’s nothing to worry about.

It was a beautiful day of running, through quaint villages and along quiet back roads in the Portuguese countryside. There will be a lot of these roads throughout Europe, particularly in France. I even spent some time on a fire trail, hopping over fallen trees that were across the road. And Carmel had a tough time in the car on one very narrow dirt road with crumbling edges.

The weather was a lot better today. Although there was only a bit of sun, the temperature was quite high for winter – around the 20 C mark – and there was no rain. If every day in Europe was to be like today, I’d be pretty happy.

PS Carmel’s Apple can’t pick up the internet in this hotel, so she hasn’t been able to post any photos today. Hopefully tomorrow.